Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

NATO said recently that Ukraine will be let into NATO eventually, ruining the prospect of peace anytime soon. Russia is in this till the bitter end now, as they probably should be.

Why do you think NATO said that 'recently'? Bearing in mind that the whole purpose of NATO is to serve as a counter to Russian expansion in Europe, can you think of a single event on the world stage that made the expansion of the alliance suddenly seem like a good, even necessary, step?

I agree with you, though, that the end of this war, whenever it comes, is going to be extremely bitter for Russia.

Boru

It’s not only against Russia. Before WWII the Society of Nations had failed to prevent Hitler’s expansionism. So after the armistice there was an alliance of democracies led by the US (NATO) + the Pact of Warsaw for socialist countries. In today’s perspective it can also be seen as an alliance against any other threat from a country with a nuclear arsenal, Like China for instance.
 
Anyway. NATO is a defensive alliance and it’s a very successful alliance. You don’t need to be scared from a NATO country if you are not an expansionist nation.
 
There are other costs of war like the psychological toll on men who fight in the front. I found a nice article on that:
“Vilena Kit, a psychologist who works with soldiers as well as survivors of domestic violence, says soldiers are at a high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental condition triggered by a traumatic event. One of the biggest challenges she found when working with veterans from the 2014 conflict in the Donbas was alcoholism, which . Vilena says there was a wave of domestic abuse after soldiers came back from fighting in the Donbas and predicts there will be another big wave once the current war is over. “The worst is still to come,” she says.”
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/war-made-him-...25550.html
 
One interesting movie on this issue is the 1989 movie “Born on the Fourth of July” with Tom Cruise.
 
And of course the collateral damage is mostly on the partners, mothers and families of all these men. Many of them will have to be psychologically treated for a long period.